The Shenango and Freedom girls basketball teams played to a regular-season split that saw each team share a Section 1 championship by a combined margin of just 13 points.
It was more of the same the third time around – with much more on the line.
Shenango senior forward Kylee Rubin scored a game-high 17 points, as classmates Emilee Fedrizzi and Janie Natale added 13 each, to lead the top-seeded Wildcats to a 44-34 victory against No. 2 seed Freedom in the WPIAL Class 2A championship game on Thursday at Pitt’s Petersen Events Center.
“It’s amazing,” said second-year Wildcats coach Ricci LaRocco after capturing the first WPIAL title in school history. “It really is. They put their mind to this two years ago and this is what they can accomplish. They took me on one hell of a ride this year and it’s not over yet.”
Shenango (22-4) advances to play the loser of the District 6 consolation game between Bishop McCort and Marion Center in the PIAA playoffs. Freedom (20-5) will play the winner of the same game to begin its state postseason run.
“This has been our goal forever, and we finally did it,” said Fedrizzi, who surpassed 1,000 career points in the win.
Freedom was paced by senior forward Julz Mohrbacher, who scored a team-high 15 points with eight rebounds, while guard Olivia Henderson added 12, converting on 4 of 8 shots from beyond the 3-point arc.
“It wasn’t the outcome wanted,” Mohrbacher said. “Coming into that second half, I knew we were going to win that game. For it to turn out that way, it sucks.”
Freedom controlled much of Thursday’s game, as Mohrbacher and Henderson combined for 19 first-half points to give their team a 23-22 lead at the break. The Bulldogs would go on to hold Shenango to just two field goals in the third quarter to take a 29-28 advantage into the fourth.
“We did everything that we possibly could to control and contain them,” Freedom coach John Kaercher said. “The game got away from us. We’re not going to go back and second- guess ourselves on what we did because obviously what we did for the first three-and-a-half quarters worked.”
When Mohrbacher fouled out with the scored tied at 34-34 with 4:46 left in the game, Shenango responded.
Rubin immediately gave her team a lead it would not relinquish with a free throw resulting from Mohrbacher’s foul. Fedrizzi then responded with six points to put the game out of reach.
“I think once we smelled the blood, we kind of just attacked,” LaRocco said.
It was the second consecutive loss for Freedom in the WPIAL championship game. The Bulldogs fell to North Catholic in the title game a year ago before advancing to the PIAA championship contest where it fell to Neumann-Goretti.
Kaercher said his team is poised to make a similar run this time around. He added that the return of standout guard Shaye Bailey, Freedom’s leading scorer in the regular season, for the PIAA tournament is not out of the realm of possibility.
“They gave us 110%,” Kaercher said. “They left everything out there. We came up a little bit short, but we never lost faith in the girls. The girls never lost faith in each other, or in the team aspect that we preach, and the family that we preach. There’s still a long road ahead of us to go for the state run.”
Shenango is also looking ahead to big things in the state postseason.
“They’ve earned it,” LaRocco said. “They’ve given everything I could possibly ask for in two years as their head coach. The goal is to win a gold medal. I told them I would try to help them, but believe me when I tell you, they’ve taught me more than I could ever teach them. This has been the best two years of coaching. I’ve got 20 years of coaching in and I wouldn’t trade these two years for anything.
“I’m going to let them enjoy what they’ve accomplished,” he added. “Then we’ll sit back and see who we play and get back on that track.”
John is a copy editor and page designer at the Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at jsanta@unionprogress.com.